June 2013 – Learning to Surf

June 28, 2013June 28, 2013

Yay, Fish!

Surf: 4.6 ft at 12.1 s from the W at 269Â°. Calm – light WSW winds. Dropping to negative tide.

Wooohooohooo ooo.

The forecast sounded pretty mediocre and the cams weren’t helping. After last week, I figured I’d find something rideable. After yesterday, I figured it would be closeouts. I took my fish thinking at bare minimum I wouldn’t get quite so clobbered and I might get a couple half second closeout rides.

Thankfully, the surf turned out to be pretty fun.

I got a few short rides, a few longer okay rides, a few rides where I faceplanted trying to cut back (I’m still figuring out this whole “more than one fin” thing), and then one ride that counts as my most competent wave so far on the fish at Linda Mar.

I got a GREAT wave in Santa Cruz, but conditions were so good that day, it was the wave and the board doing all the work. I’d be happy to have a million more waves like that, sure, but today’s wave made me feel like I was starting to learn a few things.

The key things being that I got my weight right (I keep being too far forward, too far back), used the rail nicely (you know, to go forward instead of standing there), used my fins well for my turns (I could use a little more work here but still excited to be doing turns at all), and got nice smooth glide though the sections.

All and all, pretty satisfied.

<3 Fish!

June 27, 2013June 30, 2013

Whiteout closeouts

Surf: 5.6 ft at 12.9 s from W at 273Â°. Falling/low tide. No wind.

Heavy fog this morning. Not only only a blind paddle out, but some foldover closeouts. Probably not the best day for the hull, but that seems to be a theme lately.

After getting clobbered a few times, I headed south for smaller closeouts. I got a few short rides. Nothing fantastic, but workable considering the day.

There was one moment where I was trying to paddle out over and incoming wave and the water in front of where I was about to paddle started moving. I’d seen quite a few dolphins already so I was banking on it being friendly sea life moving around. After the shark vs kayak reports the other day, it was a little tough to paddle straight into in fog that thick.

Whole morning was a little spooky.

June 26, 2013June 28, 2013

Test run

Surf: 3.9 ft at 14.8 s from the NW at 306Â°, low tide, calm.

JBird had been wanting to try my Vaquero out for a while. I figured we’d swing by Linda Mar and she’d get some cruisey little waves on it.

Well, plans change. We hot another spot that, in addition to being crowded, was about shoulder high+, steep, and short. Not the best waves to try out that board on. I have to pop up so fast and with the crowd and the low visibility, it’s hard to weave through people. I got a few fun waves on it (I figured I’d get a few rides and then I’d be able to tell her where to sit), but had to kick out of most due to people. I got one really fun ride on her board. Not surprisingly, people move out of my way a lot faster when I’m on a longboard vs a 6’10. I had a clear ride all the way in. Nice.

Sadly, Jbird didn’t get any waves on it. I think what she want is as far as a hull goes is more of a Andrieni Serena than a Andrieni Vaquero. They are supposed to be better in steeper stuff, better all-arounders. I love my Vaquero, but it deserves a long point-break wave. Short fast waves are a bit of a waste of all it’s cruisey goodness. It’s also 4 feet shorter than Jacob’s Andrieni. That’s a big change. It’s not that easy to just hop on a shorter board.

I’m hoping to get a chance to have her try it out again, maybe in something a little smaller and smoother.

June 25, 2013June 30, 2013

Waves!

Surf: 1.6 ft at 8.3 s from the WNW at 282Â°. Low tide. Offshore.

After weeks of serious slopsurf, it was nice to see something that looked like a wave. Sure it was small, knee high to waist high, but it was clean enough and there were rainbows on top of rainbows. This was Hawaii level of rainbow action.

Got some fun little ones in shallow water and a nice tour of the whole beach. Surfable enough for me. 🙂

June 23, 2013June 30, 2013

Surf Lessons in Pismo

Pismo party wave by @traceythompson

Surf: 3.6 ft at 7.7 s from the NW at 307Â°. Lil windy.
(from Santa Maria 21 NM NW of Point Arguello, CA)

Day two of the surf and space roommate trip. I got up early and scoped out the waves, but forgot that once I left the room, I was going to be stuck outside (no room key) so I watched the surf slowly deteriorate.

Ah well. Worse waves means fewer surfers and more whitewater for my beginner roommates to catch.

Once we packed up the room. I went out for a short surf while Meghan picked up a soft top. I splashed around in my swim fins trying to push her into waves. While she didn’t stand up, I think she’s figuring out enough to have fun with me in bolinas or a cowells. 🙂

Always nice to see someone stoked.

Swapped the fins for my board and caught a few more waves. Chatted with folks in the water. All around, not fun sloppy surf.

The other girls went out with Kaitlyn and each stood up once or twice.

By then our warm beach weekend had turned to wind and puffy jackets.

Not a bad trip. 🙂

June 22, 2013June 30, 2013

Sea and Surf Weekend

Surf: 4.6 ft at 8.3 s from the NW at 326Â°

One of my roommmates works for NASA. Her project is launching into space this week so NASA threw a friends and family day to come learn about the project and see the launch vehicle.

We made a roommate weekend trip out of it. A few of the girls went down early and had a surf lesson. The rest of us came down the next day.

The surf at the Pismo Beach Pier was looking fun (more fun than Linda Mar was all week), but I had to rush off to Vandenberg.

The presentations and the launch vehicle were super cool. This project uses a commercial jet that gets to altitude, then drops a three-sage rocket. The rocket fires off into space and deploys the satellite. A-mazing. If there’s anything I like more than learning about the ocean, it’s learning about space.

After the NASA trip, we headed back to the beach. Kaitlyn and I surfed a while at the pier. It was mostly closed out, and a little mixed up, but rideable. Watching some of the locals long board was making me jealous, but my hull fit better in the hotel room and still managed to pull off some fun waves.

I’m always happy to check out other breaks, especially when my friends can hang out on a nice warm beach. 🙂

June 20, 2013July 1, 2013

A Smooth Sea Never Made a Skillful Sailor

Surf: 3.9 ft at 7.1 s from the W at 279Â°

This week has been a return to my surfing roots: making the most of terrible waves. These sessions are all about positioning, patience, and making unmakeable sections.

It’s been mixed up, choppy, and all around messy. These are the kinds of waves I started out surfing on. Since it’s been a desperate month with too much time out of the water, I’ve been willing to give it a shot.

These are great skill building conditions. It’s one thing to catch a clean perfect wave, it’s another to really work to make slop into a wave.

June 19, 2013July 1, 2013

Desperado

Surf: 3.0 ft at 7.7 s from the WNW at 293Â°

More desperado waves today. Brien didn’t want to haul all the way down to yesterday’s waves so we made the most of the usual hangouts. It was pretty much as expected: mixed up, sloppy, etc, but kinda surfable. I think we wound up chasing a few soft tops out of the water. I imagine it was more fun for them when they thought it was totally unsurfable. Then we come by and grab tiny meh wave after tiny meh wave and show them up… or they were tired of the nauseating wash and slop. Uff.

Can’t wait for the wind to take a break.

June 18, 2013July 1, 2013

Spicoli

Surf: 2.0 ft at 8.3 s from the WNW at 291Â°

Having been out of the water almost two weeks, I figured I’d take a look at the surf.

I hauled Aaron’s 9’6 Junod roundtail to the beach. I’m holding on to it while he moves to a new apartment. It’s a big ole board. Heavier than mine. Round rails. A coat of housepaint from a previous owner.

While a little slow and probably better suited for nice Santa Cruz waves than dumping beach slop, it does have some good weight to it. I was able to sneak up pretty far towards the nose. I got some fun swinging pivoty turns that were unexpected.

The board will probably hang out at the office for a while, I don’t have the space for it. But nice to try something else.

June 16, 2013July 1, 2013

Ding Repiar

Did a little ding repair today.

My Vaquero survived the trip to Mexico. It survived a cobblestone point break. It survived boats and cars and falling coconuts. It unfortunately wasn’t able to stand up to me whacking it against the wall at the house like an idiot. Maaaaaan.

If I hadn’t just picked up a board from an Alex, I would have had him to the repair.

I also needed to do several repairs on my other longboard, so I figured I’d give it a go. I practiced first on the longboard, sanding, patching, sanding, patching.

When it came time to do the Vaquero, I took plenty of time. I cut off the lose chips of fiberglass with a razor. I sanded and sanded with tape to keep from going overboard. I filled, I cured, I sanded, I filled again, I sanded. It was hours of work, but I’m pretty happy with the result.

Just knowing I can do a repair that doesn’t look like a glop bomb is a big step forward. It’s not perfect, but I’m still proud.

Now to watch it like a hawk to make sure it doesn’t leak. :S